Diabetes mellitus is a disorder of glucose present in the blood discharged via the urine, which is one of chronic degenerative diseases, which is not fundamentally cured. In came into modern times, due to dietary changes and lack of exercise, a big change has occurred in an energy metabolism process, which is inherent in a human body. As a result, occurrences of chronic degenerative diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, have increased. In South Korea, it is known that the prevalence of diabetes mellitus has reached 5% to 10%, and continually increasing. In the case of the United States, the prevalence of diabetes mellitus has increased six fold over the last 40 years, due to the increase of such levels, it is expected that the number of patients will have increased to 26 million people in 2050.
The type II (insulin-independent) diabetes mellitus, which accounts for more than 95% of diabetes mellitus, is known to have two causes, namely known as a complex disorder of insulin secretion disorder and insulin resistance. In other words, diabetes mellitus is a disease that shows chronic lycemia symptoms for these complex disorders.
Insulin secretion disorder means a situation when an appropriate amount of insulin is not secreted from a beta cell of pancreas in response to the blood sugar concentration, which includes both quantitative reduction of beta cells secreting insulin and functional secretion failure. Insulin resistance means a situation when the insulin action and sensitivity is reduced at a target cell thereof, even when secreted insulin reached the target organ by the bloodstream. In general, it considered as signaling failure after binding to a cell membrane receptor. The cause thereof may be a genetic predisposition, obesity, decrease of physical activity and lycemia, or dyslipidemia. In the case of insulin resistance, a greater amount of insulin should be secreted to overcome insulin resistance; while hyperglycemia occurred due to insufficient insulin itself can worsen insulin resistance again.
Prediabetes means a blood sugar dysregulation corresponding to the previous stage of diabetes mellitus. Prediabetes refers to a high-risk group, which may be led to diabetes mellitus. A prediabetes patient has 3 to 5 times higher risk to be led to diabetes mellitus in the future than a healthy individual. In addition, although the blood sugar level of a prediabetes patient is not as high as that of diabetes mellitus patient, the blood sugar level is higher than a healthy individual, increasing blood vessel stress, thus having 3 to 5 times higher risk for cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke or myocardial infarction than in a healthy individual. Types of prediabetes may include impaired fasting lycemia (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), or metabolic syndrome.
Olfactory receptors are mainly located in the cilia of an olfactory sensory neuron in vertebrates. In the case of insects, olfactory receptors are located in the antennae and chemosensory organ. In particular, in human and some animals, it is known that expression of olfactory receptors is found in other tissues, other than olfactory sensory neurons; however, the function of the olfactory receptors expressed in other tissues is not known clearly.
The current treatment method of diabetes mellitus may be by diet, exercise therapy, sulfonylurea, biguanide-based drugs, α-glucosidase inhibitor, or insulin. Various types of insulin developed through much research for the development of new drugs has been applied to clinically. However, these antidiabetic agents have problems that cause many side effects, such as liver dysfunction, hypoglycemia, or lacticacidemia.
Therefore, there is a need for an antidiabetic agent that decreases side effects of the conventional antidiabetic agent, improves symptoms of metabolic abnormalities, and is safe even in the case of long-term use.